Keatsian – Poetry
John Keats was born and raised in England and is concerned as one of the great poets 0f English literature. In his poetry, he admired nature, the natural phenomena like rivers, vegetation, mountains, waterfalls, and islands. His poems (literary versions) have a variety of descriptions that we can describe or admire by referring to the contents.
The poem “To the Nile” is admiration or an appreciation or a song of praise to the famous river wife. The writer describes the natural creation and the flow of the river Nile which begins or springs out from the famous lake Victoria in the Decan plateau in central Africa.
Ode to the Nile
The writer John Keats, the nature poet, wishes to praise the everlasting natural phenomenon with its unique existence on Earth. It’s the world-famous, ever longest river Nile, which springs up from Central Africa and falls into the Mediterranean Sea (waters) in the north of Egypt. He composes this sonnet to feature this massive and unique creation under the sun.
Though he uses only these fourteen lines as the content, the poetic composition is tightly condensed with a wholesome description of the river Nile. With the octave, the writer tells us about the existence of the river Nile, Which goes back in history up to the pre-historic era.
The river was famed for the existence of the Earth. There Africans have a mythical belief that; the initiating fountains of the river spring up from the top of moon mountains in the plateau Decan in central Africa. These high peak mountains reach up to the sky and Heaven. So, they believe that these springs are initiated in Heaven to relieve the suffering black nation.
He admires the river, which flows continuously through its valleys, infesting millions of aquatic beings like crocodiles passing the beautiful structures of pyramids in the valleys by the Egyptian capital Cairo.
The speaker personifies the river as a nurse who treats the swart (black) nation giving them much relief and providing them versatile comforts for their livelihood. Its water density helps farmer folk for agricultural fertility and resist their lifeblood. So that the river Nile is treated as holy, which enchants the Africans with the blessings of its heavenly creation.
The mildness of its spring comforts their lives with much relief. The dwellers on either side of the river are wealthy and happy thanks to the volume of water that flows non-stop. Further, the writer says that the river reserves the field from Cairo to the plateau Decan linking vase distance stretch of land scaps, making it fancy for the entertainment of dark women. Using the sestet, the speaker; provides us a vivid description of how the river flows into the Mediterranean. See from the northern tip of Egypt providing water to the valleys on either side to create trees pastures,
which are rich with fertility for their agriculture-based lives. He explains how beautiful the broad river was while flowing, creating speedy waves around the green islands that emerged in the middle of the river. The beauty during the daytime with the morning sun. The breezy valleys comfort the dark nation relieving them, helping them with almighty powers of prosperity. Finally, the writer says how speedy it flows toward the river enough, which flows down to the sea with pride and dignity. The eat; classic writer John Keats uses a straightforward and common vocabulary to present his overflowing admiration of this everlasting unique natural phenomenon. He uses patterns of rhyming also. There are rhyming couplets like ” Crocodile-while,” “Span-began,” and “beguile-toil” in the octave, and he uses alternative rhyming patterns in the sestet like “do-bedew,” “waste-taste,” “taste-haste.” In the first part, the holiness of the versatile use of the water in the river is described with the effect of the meaning.
In the latter part, the sestet, the writer describes how the capacity of water flows down bouncing and rolling waves up to the sea, providing the water to the lands on either side of the valleys. The river Nile has the pride of being the longest river in the world. The writer adds its holiness, reminding the readers that the river springs up from the Moon mountain ranges, which brings the water from Heaven to relieve the swart nations. When we read the full contact of the poem, the complete imagery of the poem is created in the mind of the reader, which is vivid like in a fairytale. So anyone can comment that this classical sonnet brings on everlasting creation over a unique natural creation in the world. So, the importance of this content is multi-faceted.
See also: Lake Gregory (Nuwara Eliya) in Sri Lanka.